Instead of doing a journal for my Colloquium class, I am starting a blog about the diversity of the surrounding nature of Southwest Florida

Monday, February 22, 2010

One Degree Factor

This video was very intimidating to say the least. The disappearance of animals, specifically 60,000 Caribou forming a "ghost heard," seems to be more than just a cycle, but that of a species struggling with rising temperatures. Noticing this is just one factor of the entire problem, it still is an indicator of the potentialities of what could/will happen with other species. Another interesting tid-bit that ties in with caribou is the mosquito effect, which is mostly a domino effect. It says the life of a caribou is split into "time spent evading insects and time spent feeding." The increase in temperature leads to larger swarms, and these larger swarms of mosquitoes make the caribou spend more energy to evade the insects, thus leading to a declined population. The unfortunate part to all of this is simple. The caribou clans are having trouble evolving to the changing ecosytems and are in danger of getting erased completely, which they say could "impoverish mankind," citing mankind relied on caribou for food for hundreds of years. Taking a look into the ocean, it was interesting to note that plankton, such as krill. The west coast plankton levels were down 20% from what they were in the 1950's, that led to concern, because they are central in the food chain, and could cause an unraveling of the food chain. Yet, the krill population recovered, which they say is tied to rearrangement of hot and cool water, or a "regime shift." These shifts disrupt the food supply and change the nutrients that come up from the bottom of the ocean to the top. Finally, another thing i found interesting was the connection of some Caribbean Islands such as Trinidad and global events that occurred thousands miles away. The connection involved the medical mystery of the increasing number of children being infected with Asthma. The link that tied these together is simple; dust...from the Sahara Dessert, because of the lakes, such as Lake Chad, that have dried up to shallow channels due to significant droughts, which causes more dust which is being blown to the America's. Overall, this video explained many domino effects. These domino effects include links and connections between animals, humans, disease, plants, the atmosphere, lakes/oceans, and almost every living/nonliving species on the planet. The world continues to change, mostly for the worse, and no one will ever know what other effects might be stemmed from the ever-changing climate.